Bring back avatar galleries?

[cheatmaster30]

It was mentioned a while ago, but it seems like there was nothing official said about it. Still, I think IPB should bring back the avatar gallery feature. Because yeah, people do often upload their own or use a third party service, but there are also quite a few sites that rely on said feature.

For example, I've seen quite a few sites run by large companies that outright ban using uploaded avatars or ones from third party sources, either to minimise copyright issues or safety related issues or whatever else. They then have the old fashioned gallery as the only way of choosing an avatar. For example, back in the olden days the official Nintendo forums worked like this, and I think their current tech support forums do as well.

I've also seen forums where only hosted avatars from a gallery are allowed for style reasons, such as one where all avatars are neon sign styled versions of the characters the site is about. And as of this time, not having the avatar gallery feature any more basically means said forum could never upgrade to the latest IPB version.

Not to mention that gaming forums and other fan forums tend to have this feature as somewhat standard, and I think removing it probably quite badly hit some of those.

So yeah, are there any plans to bring the feature back at some time in future, as an option? There wouldn't need to be the old avatars included with the download, just have it initially be blank and the admin find the images themself.

[Saiga]

Ah yes, the Nintendo NSider forums. My first forum.

Anyway, I can understand why some people would like this feature back, but I don't find it essential.

I guess Brandon's words from last year pretty much sum it up nicely, especially point 2.

And if I'm not mistaken, this same functionality you want can be achieved through the use of IP.Gallery.